Frostbite
by scarletphlame
Summary: "It's bloody June!" Ianto hissed, grinding his teeth together and teetering back and forth with the heave and ho of the wind like a flag suspended on a pole. His arms were folded across his chest, securing his long coat to the mass of his body. "It's not supposed to snow in the middle of f-cking June!"
1. Chapter 1

Snowed In

AN: Ok... so this was actually an idea for a chapter in my fic, 'Thief', but I really had fun writing this idea... so I decided to write it all over again, just for the heck of it.

R&R, please!

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><p>A freezing flurry of snow rained down from the heavens, pelting several innocent bystanders as they languidly hurried towards their warm homes. Ianto watched them leave the area in dismay, feeling the bitter sting of jealousy hit him like a bullet, twisting its way into his heart.<p>

The cold seemed to bite at Ianto's skin like a pack of rabid dogs, and the Welshman shuddered, groping around his neck with numb fingers. He felt wool on his thumb and forefinger, and pinched down, pulling the multicolored scarf taut around his neck.

He uttered a curse under his breath, footsteps crunching in the snow. He felt as if he was stepping on a collection of New Year's firepoppers, or perhaps listening to Owen eat a bag of Lays.

_Crucnch, crunch, crunch, crunch._

A few feet ahead of him, the Captain waved a sleeved arm in the air, beckoning him forwards. From a distance, the immortal might've been mistaken for someone waving a taxi.

Exasperated, Ianto panted and stumbled in the snow, as the freezing wind began to tug at his clothing. Damn the Rift for spitting out a weather-inducing artifact in the middle of Cardiff. Damn bloody Captain Jack Harkness for all but dragging him out of his flat by the ear to go and trot after the latest crap the gauge in space and time had spat out at them. He felt like a starving dog pathetically crawling towards a bone. Damn the cold, and his dwindling stamina as he battled to stay upright in the whirlpool of howling, freezing air.

Damn bloody Torchwood.

"We haven't got all day!" Jack bellowed, hands cupped over his mouth for effect. Ianto rolled his eyes, but he doubted the Captain could possibly see the gesture due to the thin layer of white sleet in the air dancing between them.

"It's bloody June!" Ianto hissed, grinding his teeth together and teetering back and forth with the heave and ho of the wind like a flag suspended on a pole. His arms were folded across his chest, securing his long coat to the mass of his body. "It's not supposed to snow in the middle of fucking June!"

A glance at the other man was unnecessary to see the smug grin on his face. Ianto could almost smell it from where he was standing. But, then again, his nose was slowly turning red from the cold. Suddenly, he wished he were at home, enjoying a nice cuppa and reading a book, curled up on the couch.

He finally reached Jack, filling up the gap separating them. Peering down into the snow, he raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "It's a bloody rock."

"I noticed."

"It's a bloody rock."

"Actually, it interferes with the weather by altering solar energy."

"So it's a bloody rock with magic powers. Brilliant. Can we pick it up and go home? I'm freezing," Ianto ground out.

Jack chuckled amorously, advancing on Ianto from behind and placing a hand on his waist. "Maybe I can warm you up later."

With a groan, Ianto hunched forwards, picking up the stone with a gloved hand.

Jack lifted the hand that'd previously been on Ianto's waist, and let it fall to his side."Mind if I take a look at that?"

Wordlessly, Ianto handed the stone to him. The older man took it from him, pivoting it in a full circle in his thumb and forefinger, examining it duly. Suddenly, the stone burst into flames, and Jack let out a howl of pain and dropped it on the snow-soaked ground. The heat hissed against the tufts of white.

The world began to spin around Ianto, thousands of images flying past his eyes in a kaleidoscope of nausea.

And then it stopped, finally _stopped_, and he collapsed onto the ground. Mind orbiting in flurried circles, he let out a gasp as gravity seemed to swoop around him, shoving his palms deeper into the snow and pulling him up. The pattern repeated for a few more moments, cycling around him like a vortex of his own miniature blizzard.

Then, it came to a sudden halt and he let out a loud, unsuppressed groan of pain, cheek resting against a knot of snow.

Arms trembling, he forced himself to stand, hobbling into the fray of the wind and snow as he teetered back and forth unbalanced.

"Jack!" he screamed. "Jack!"

A loud, piercing sound cut through the gale, and Ianto turned to face the direction it'd come from. It was a distress signal, one he recognized as Jack's. He'd only heard the pitchy, loud whine once before, when they'd been trapped in a death-maze created by some type of alien. Jack had sounded the distress signal, and it'd saved them.

He wasn't sure if it would save them now.

Ianto ran, ran in the direction of the sound he'd heard, stumbling several times in his speed. He nearly tripped over Jack when he found him- the immortal was lying unconscious on the snowdrift. Blood was pooling around his head, turning the crystallized white snow deep red.

"Jack." he nudged the body with the palm of his hand. "Oh, God, Jack." his vision blurred. He stooped his over the other man's body, pressing his ear onto his chest and listening for a heartbeat, tuning out the explosion of snow behind him. There was a heartbeat, much to his relief, but it was vague.

Jack's body was a crumpled mass, his fingers twitching slightly. His right arm was thrown over the top of his body. Somehow, he'd managed to peel away the flap on his wrist strap and send the signal.

"Jack," Ianto whispered, lifting up his lover by the flaps of his RAF greatcoat and hugging him to his chest. "Wake up, cariad."

He wasn't sure how long he waited for Jack to revive, but the immortal convulsed with a gasp of breath, hand unconsciously gripping onto Ianto's shoulder. He shuddered several times against Ianto before he seemed to adjust to his surroundings.

Swallowing, Ianto spoke up. "Where are we?"

"I think it teleported us," Jack uttered, closing his eyes for a moment and shivering. "We have to find it, or- or Cardiff'll be in deep snow by tomorrow."

Ianto nodded blankly and helped the older man stand, dusting off the thin film of snow on the greatcoat's sleeves. Jack managed something of a smile, but didn't comment on Ianto's avid preservation of his coat.

"You okay?" the immortal man asked, pressing a hand to Ianto to halt his shivering. Ianto nodded steadily, lips numb and cracked like porcelain.

"If we can't find it, I've still sent Tosh the distress signal. They'll find us," Jack said.

Ianto's head bobbed.

He jus t wondered if they would find them dead under layers of snow.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Yay! Finals and school are over!

Here's part 2!

P.S. I ship me and Jack.

(But not as much as I ship Jack and Ianto.)

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><p>Ianto wasn't sure how long they'd been walking for when he finally collapsed. He was only vaguely aware of the snow kissing his cheek, and that was when he realized he was lying face-first in snow.<p>

He could feel Jack's hands tugging at the folds of his coat, urging him up, but he'd reached the end of his line. He realized, in a moment of near oblivion, that he was going to die, in Cardiff, in the middle of a blizzard.

In the middle of June.

A wave of nausea shoved him further into the snow, and he let out a pitiful cough, feeling his lungs burn at the exertion.

"Ianto, we're almost there, we can make it," he could hear Jack wheeze. "I can't get us out until we find it."

Go, he wanted to say, but he could barely keep his eyes open. Go without me and stop this bloody storm. (He just managed something of a low whimper.)

Jack shrugged off his beloved RAF greatcoat. He listened to the rustling sounds it made behind him as it flapped about in the wind. Too exhausted to fight back, he allowed Jack to wrap the navy wool around his shivering form.

"You're gonna be okay," he heard Jack's voice say from what sounded like miles away. "I've sent the distress signal. You're gonna be okay."

It sounded like he was trying to reassure himself, rather than Ianto.

He shivered under his skin, tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as he tried to bite out a few words. "Jack," he croaked.

"Shh, shh," Jack said, pulling Ianto into his lap and holding him tightly. "You're gonna be okay." his words came out choked, and he could hear Jack's voice break. "Just... stay with me."

Ianto fought to stay conscious, and when his eyelids felt heavy, he snapped them back open. No! He wasn't going to die here. He wasn't going to leave Jack alone in the middle of this bloody blizzard. He was going to survive, and have his beans on toast for breakfast and listen to Owen complain and Toshiko type. Gwen would exasperate him and he would go into the archives and hide there all day until Jack came and coaxed him out. They'd go to his flat, eat pizza, and watch a movie. He refused to die here.

Oh, God, he _didn't want to die_.

"Jack," he repeated, his head lolling to the side, snow crusting his eyelids together. He was only vaguely aware of Jack's hand on the back of his head, lifting him up, steadying him. Struggling to crack a reassuring smile at the immortal man, he glanced upwards, the Captain's gaze pinning him in his place. "Bloody rock," he muttered. Somebody coughed. He wondered if it was him.

"Just wait. Tosh and Owen will be here soon." Jack cracked a smile. Ianto thought he saw a tear on Jack's cheek, but he might've imagined it, out of sheer exhaustion.

"Hey," he croaked. "It was good, yeah?"

"Oh, no, no, no, don't you go saying goodbyes on me," Jack whispered. Ianto could barely hear him over the roar of the storm. "Not now, okay? This is nothing!" Jack shook him. "You stay awake, Ianto Jones, do you hear me?" God, Jack was shaking. He could feel the tremors run through the other man's arms.

"Remember me, okay?"

"I won't have to. You'll make it through this."

Ianto's eyelids fluttered shut. "You'll forget me... a thousand year's time... you won't remember me."

It was the last thing he remembered saying before blackness hit him.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

When Ianto woke up, he vaguely wondered if he was in Heaven.

He surveyed the area, groggily shifting where he lay on the couch. The television was on. So was the heater. Funny. He rubbed his arms; they were blessedly warm. Rough, possibly from the cold, but warm.

"Can't be in heaven, otherwise my flat would be cleaner," he muttered. He tried to sit up, wool shifting from his shoulders onto his lap. The fabric brushed across his pants. He was dressed in pajamas. "Maybe hell?" he snarked, to nobody in particular. Swinging his legs over the side of the couch, he stood, half expecting his feet to slip into bunny shoes.

He couldn't budge a bit.

He shivered, although it was not cold. Sniffled, even though he was not sick. A tear trickled down his cheek and he was not sad.

It was kind of odd.

He'd genuinely assumed he would die out there.

Upon further inspection of his flat, he found that Jack was not there, which was understandable. Jack never seemed to be around anymore. He stayed at the Hub and even then he wasn't there all the time. Was he hiding something from Ianto? Or maybe someone?

There was a little sticky note on the counter, which read _'Take a couple days off if you want. -J'_.

He stiffened, stuffed the note in his pocket, all crumply, crammed in fabric with dustballs and paper wads and machine washed candy wrappers and got dressed in a daze. _Take a couple days off._ Was this Jack's way of telling him he didn't want him around right now?

When he'd laid there in the snow, Jack all over him... He'd just about told him that he loved him.

Something pricked at the back of his mind–something about a part-time shag–but he refused to listen to it.

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><p>Ianto arrived at the Hub and he already knew things were bad.<p>

Owen snarked about getting frostbite; Tosh gave him a sympathetic look; Gwen gave puppy eyes to Jack. It was as if everything was eerily normal in the most abnormal of ways. It was too... _Torchwood_ for his taste.

As a team of five members, the Torchwood Cardiff team was tight–knit and close together. He hadn't expected the incident he'd had out there in the snow to have taken such a toll on all of them... but it just served as another reminder of Torchwood's many dangers.

Ianto wondered how Jack was feeling in the midst of all of this.

He hoped the man didn't blame himself for everything, like he had a tendency to do so. He hoped Jack wasn't upset with him. Ianto didn't think he could handle Jack being mad at him. He was already mad at himself for saying the things he did out there.

It wasn't that he didn't love Jack, or wanted him to remember him forever. If death ever did come for him, all he'd want was for Jack to move on and find someone else. Live his life, since it might be all he had anymore.

It'd been panic. Just the thought of lying out in the cold, being forgotten, being erased, thinking ahead, and, _Oh God, I'm going to die out here and nobody's listening, and I'm nothing to Jack or to the world or to the future, nothing, I'm just a speck, and–_

Ianto managed a weak smile. He supposed that was just one of the things that almost dying did to people.

He fumbled with the coffee cups a bit, doing his best to balance them all neatly, carrying the tray through the Hub, offering coffee to Tosh who gave him a bright smile and thanks and then Owen who muttered something about not wanting to be disturbed in the middle of his work and then to Gwen who grinned and said, "Thanks, Ianto!".

And then he was in Jack's office.

"Tosh, I–"

Ianto cleared his throat, then winced. Maybe he'd done it too loud? Jack sort of jumped in his seat, then glanced up to look at him. Oh. Jack looked terribly nervous. His fingers wrapped around the edges of the coffee tray. He pinched silver with his thumb and forefinger.

"I just brought you some coffee," he spoke.

"Just leave it on my desk," Jack said gruffly, lowering his head to glance at stacks and stacks of paperwork. Ianto could see pale blue eyes dart around as he looked at the pages, but he knew that Jack wasn't really reading them.

He set the striped mug on the tin patch of desk he could see and excused himself from the office, just before Jack yelled, "I thought I told you to take a couple of days off."

Ianto pursed his lips together. "You told me to take a couple of days off a couple of days ago, sir," he said simply.

It wasn't snowing anymore, but it sure felt like it was winter in the Hub.


	4. fin

AN: P.S... This is an AU, set after the season two finale. But I like people in the Hub, so Tosh and Owen are still alive. (cheer)

(Pause)

(Sigh)

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><p>"You know, Ianto, he's not mad at you," Tosh spoke up one afternoon.<p>

Stiffly, Ianto turned, manilla folder in one hand; some sort of file about an alien on a planet very far away.

"Tosh, what're you doing down here?"

"Thanks for making me feel welcome," Tosh replied, sending him a smile as she approached Ianto. He could hear the_ click click_ of her high heels as she walked. It was loud in the silence of the archives. "Jack's not mad at you," she added.

Ianto turned and pretended to be busy with files. He rearranged the ones _Twanski_ and _Twerlfi_, although it ruined his alphabetical order. He rearranged them back, hoping Toshiko might not notice. _Of course she would._

He felt trapped between Toshiko, the exit, and a box of aliens.

"I didn't think he was," Ianto muttered, gripping the edges of a file, digging his fingers into soft manilla. He swayed slightly on his heels. Had as he tried, he couldn't get the files in order. Why not?

"I think he's more scared that you might be mad at him."

Ianto fought the urge to turn and confront her._ No, of course he's mad at me, I bloody went out there and was dying and just about told him to piss off!  
><em>

Ianto didn't say anything. Just asked, "Why'd you come down here to tell me that?"

Silence buzzed around his ears. Ianto squeezed his eyes shut.

When he opened them and turned, Toshiko was gone.

Groaning, he sank onto his knees.

He was, quite possibly, going insane.

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><p>Ianto knew they were talking about him.<p>

Because every time he walked upstairs into the Hub to report a missing file or a damaged artifact, every conversation paused, then stopped, then hung in the air like a great, big, bloody, dead thing. And then they'd go on about the most random of things; celery sticks, peanut butter, Rhys.

It went on a few days before Jack finally confronted him in the Archives.

"I need you to look into that Zygon thing," Jack continued. "They're shapeshifters, so it might be hard; try to get Toshiko to run a scan on–"

"Stop."

Ianto didn't realize who'd spoken for a moment, but when he recognized his voice, he suddenly couldn't stop talking. "Just, stop it, okay, Jack? It's been five bloody days since that snowstorm, and you're still treating me like a–a–a bloody fly on the wall, so at least tell me what's going on in that enigmatic mind of yours," he snapped.

He felt the urge to tap his shoe against the ground.

"Nothing," Jack said.

"Nothing?" Ianto echoed, feeling kind of numb. "Nothing?!"

"Yeah, nothing!" Jack shouted. His voice dropped when Ianto winced. "I just... need some time."

"Time, time, to _what_?" All the frustration that had tore him up for over five days, with himself for hurting Jack and with Owen and Tosh and Gwen for pretending like nothing was wrong and with Jack himself for getting him into this mess to begin with, boiled over.

"You almost died out there, Ianto!" Jack snapped. "What if you had? How would everyone else look at me then? How does that sound? That I almost got you killed? So why do you keep on crawling back to me? Is it because of _Lisa_?"

"Oh, oh, this hasn't got a single, _fucking_ thing to do with Lisa!" Ianto roared. "It's about you pushing me away, after all we've been through! Haven't I told you that I don't care–"

"If you die?" Jack barked. Ianto flinched and stopped. Jack took it as an opportunity to go on. "Ianto! I'm over 200 years old–2200 if you count that incident where I was underground! How could I ever forget you?!"

"So that's what this is about." Ianto's heart thumped with nervousness and fear and adrenaline. "Look, Jack, I'm sorry for saying–"

"Hah." Jack sort of half-chuckled, but the sound came out all twisted in the Archives. "You know, Ianto, you're kind of unbelievable."

Ianto shrugged. "Been called worse."

It elicited a half-smirk from Jack, but nothing else. "I just can't believe that you still don't think that I could ever fall in love with you," he said, his voice lowering.

Ianto froze.

It was the closest thing Jack had ever come to saying "I love you".

And he didn't know what to do afterwards.

"Surprised?" Jack continued. "You shouldn't be," he went on, his tone darkening. "It's all you and the others think. 'Jack'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough'. 'Jack's just out for a good ol' fuck, nothing else'."

Ianto snapped his eyes shut. He refused to look at Jack. Not like this. "Jack–"

"You know, there's a reason for all of that," Jack went on, "and that's because I'm not from this century. Where I come from, it's acceptable to have multiple lovers. But, Ianto Jones, it's you who I come home to. They don't mean anything, because you... you're all that matters."

Ianto's mind raced as he tried to think of something to say. "I'm sorry–"

"Sorry for what?" Jack chuckled, all hollow and fake. "Sorry for doubting me?" His voice rose an octave higher. Tension bristled across Ianto's skin. "Don't be, it's all anyone ever does anymore. Two thousand years, Ianto, and you were the first thing that I thought of."

Pause.

"With all respect, sir, if you had been buried for two thousand years, you likely would've adapted. The human body normally does. Besides, you wouldn't still be sane after that period of time," Ianto said.

"Who said I was sane?" Jack chuckled. "No, but, you're right." Ianto watched him tiredly play with the edges of his coat. "It was sort of like going to sleep for a long time," he admitted.

Silence.

"So, now what?" Ianto muttered, because, frankly, he didn't know what else to say.

"How about we take a sledgehammer to that rock?" Jack suggested.

"Okay," Ianto said, shrugging. "Let's do that."

They turned to leave, the air between them still tense.

It was the consequence for standing so near the end.

fin

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><p>AN: I purposely left a couple of things unresolved because, well... nothing's ever resolved in Torchwood! Sigh.<p>

R&R... Pretty please, with Janto on top?


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